50p a day til christmas, healthily?!-Weezl's next challenge (part 2)

In_Search_Of_Me

oo weezl on at same time ...heloooooo!! The fruit one is a toughie but lidl are very good at fruit and veg - a whole bag of carrots for 49p not to be sniffed at and a luscious tray of figs (gorgeous and plump and takes me back to picking them off the tree in Greece at a very reasonable 12p...worth a lookie? Alas I have to go to w or would joyfully take you for a wee adventure! I recon weezl should be on pays to watch...what do people think...shall we nag her to write in? Fergus first tv appearance before he's born would be v cool...

spotdogkez

Hi All

I have used so many of your hints, tips and recipes, I thought it was time to share a recipe I made last night which I believe is relatively frugal. Apologies if there has been something similar already posted

Meatballs in tomato sauce

500g mince
1 egg
1 clove garlic
2 tsp oregano
6 tbsp breadcrumbs

Sauce
2 Onions
2 cloves garlic
2 x 500 ml cartons of passata
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp sugar
Salt and Pepper

Mix all ingredients together for meatballs (you could also add in whatever herbs/spices you like to this mix). Shape into small meatballs (I made 73!)

Chop onions and garlic (if you prefer a smooth sauce you can blend these together).

I cooked mine in the slow cooker, so added all sauce ingredients and then dropped the meatballs in, then cooked on low for 10 hours (they were probably done before this but I wasn't home to get them out any earlier).

This made enough for 2 adults and 2 kids plus another portion for us all another night.

The original recipe (Nigella's) gave instructions for it to be cooked on the stove. To do this, you need cook the onion, garlic and oregano for 10 mins in oil, add about 500 ml of water to the sauce ingredients and then add the meatballs to the pan with the sauce in and cook for approximately 20 minutes.

Hope this is of use to someone.

weezl74

Hiya Shaz and Isom (waves madly, smiling)

figs in Lidl for 12p, marvellous! I'll certainly look into that :j

shaz, I may have posted the lentil bacon thingie before, but it's had a few tweaks since then;)

550g green lentils
2 kg onions
1 pack smartprice/value bacon pieces
salt and lots of coarse ground black pepper

at least a litre of water/stock

Lob all into slo-cooker, cook over night, panic in morning that it no longer fits:eek:, find largest saucepan, carry on half in there....

You get the picture!

I recommend making a half batch, since this did 22 servings and exhausted the size of even my ahem:o large Bush slo-cooker.

Titter ye not ladies.;)

Love Weezl x

ps spotdogkez, crossed posts with you, thanks for the recipe

shaz_mum_of__2

made a lovely and quick tea yesterday pack of chicken livers (defrosted) dusted with a little flour then fried in a hot pan with garlic an onion and a handful chopped mushrooms cook until liver is done then add a splash of cheap brandy and a small pot of whoopsied cream and a half teaspoon of paprika - serve with rice yummy liver stroganoff you could add a little wholegrain mustard to the sauce too

Shaz

Jammie_Dodger_2

Thanks for the stroganoff recipe Shaz, sounds yummy going to def try that.

I have come across a list of what constitutes a portion of fruit and veg for our 5 a day. If anyone was wondering as I was I will post it.

carebearbecky

Jammie Dodger,

It never hurts to post these things, as I've seen so many different versions!

naturally_2

I was reading back through this thread and just wanted to resurrect the lentil debate... I get mine in a local greengrocer for 50p for 500g which is the cheapest I have ever seen them. I think the brand is somethingorother lion...? Anyway look out for them in the independent shops.;)

And on a similar vein, the cheapest rice I have ever found is in chinese supermarkets, which are also amazing value for herbs and such. I bought 3.5 kilo of "glutinous" rice for making sushi. The sushi was a disaster but it makes great risotto rice, and was something like 1.79 for the lot - about 1/3 of the price of risotto rice in Mr T! :eek:

I really MUST get frugal recipeing. Is it tempting fate that I think I could do nice vegetarian dishes for Weezl-like prices?! :rolleyes:

I have been making vegetable soups recently. Considering that a carton of fresh soup costs £2+ I didn't think this was too bad:

Mr T market value Butternut squash 61p
2 Mr T value onions 20p (?)
Value stock cube 2p
Horse carrot stolen from net in stable - free, but would be 1p if not!:rotfl:

Peel & chop roughly and bung all in slow cooker overnight with water. Use stick hand blender to mush it in the morning and pour into 3 tupperwares. freezes really well.

Total of 84p for 3 generous bowls - 28p a portion.

Hmm. Over half a Weezl-day's worth of budget and not the most filling of meals. OK I'll go away and see if I can do better...;)

shaz_mum_of__2

Naturally my best rice buy is 10kg of Jasmine rice for £8 (80p kilo)it is broken grains though but works fine i think mr a's jasmine rice was £4 kilo last time i looked

my indian grocer sells the brown lentils £2.29 for 5kg but the red ones are £4.99 so dont get them there!

Have stocked up with king prawns at farm foods at weekend £3.99 for a kilo these will do us at least 10 meals,did a lovely chinese sweet chilli dish on sat night with them as well as a crab a sweetcorn soup and fried rice thye soup was a pack from the chinese grocers it was really nice we too love chinese food

The recipes from chinese made easy always work for me plus nigellas salt and chilli squid (mr a sell frozen squid for £1.80)

Shaz

Guapa1

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

belated happy birthday guapa...are you a boy or a girl...always think a boy but maybe not?!! Just popping in to say hi before a very long day at work (14 hrs!) and short work day but patchwork tomorrow ...am off to bed after a cuddle wth Alfie cat! hugs all...

:rotfl:I'm a girl... A very girlie girl at that!

loocyloo

hello!

a few pages back, someone posted, saying they had made apple jam. apologies, 'cos i can't remember who! please can i have a recipe? i have lots of apples still, and i have so much stewed apple/apple cake, that i need to do something else with them! or can i make it like i have been making all my other jam? equal quantities of fruit & sugar, then boil, simmer, jar?!!

made a beef casserole on monday, 500g beef ( £5. argh!), mushrooms (50p), carrots (48p), 1/2 bag of red lentils (42p) onion (10p) and beef stock/left over passata frozen in freezer!!!

had it with rice on monday, served 2 adults, 3 children, with jacket potatoes last night, 2 adults, 2 children, and still another huge 4 portions in the freezer! so i make that at least 10 portions (assuming the childrens portion is 1/2 adult! ) so thats 65p/portion of casserole. and i suspect that when i defrost to have last 4 portions, i will add a load of veggies, so makingit do another 2 meals, i'm quite pleased! not as good as i had hoped, but getting there!

loocyloo xxx